Selected Pics

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Counting the Days

I'm not sure which happened first, Photo Friday's topic "Baby" or the idea of combining an abacus with some of the paperwork associated with our adoption of Li Mei. I've not a lot of experience with still life, though I feel like I'm finally gaining an intuition about composition. This was a hard picture to take -- three, four sessions, arranging and re-arranging, experimenting and so forth.

Generally, I take a picture when something catches my magpie-eyes and I think, "Now that's neat." This time, I did feel the need to communicate, not unlike when I write fiction or poetry. It is artificial, it is a creation, a reflection of a mind's eye emotion, a concrete representation of an amorphous ache. That sounds a bit melodramatic and sentimental which ordinarily I try to avoid -- but as long as I'm not avoiding it, I might as well share and hope it was a successful effort.